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TS Pilot Rejected, Called Overbearing, In UK Case
By PA News
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
April 9, 1998
A transsexual pilot who served with the RAF and as a mercenary in Africa
was rejected for a job with a budget airline because of her overbearing manner,
a tribunal was told today.
The claim came after Kristina Sheffield, 52, of Ealing, west London, who
has 34 years' flying experience, told the Bedford tribunal she threatened to
"tie up" a former colleague and "whip him with a wet lettuce leaf" if he did not
give her a job with Luton-based easyJet.
Miss Sheffield, previously known as Ian and a married father of one,
claimed sex discrimination against Air Foyle who were then holders of easyJet's
operating licence.
Simon Cheves, representing Air Foyle, said former colleagues of Miss
Sheffield who were working for the airline regarded her as "over assertive and on
occasions intimidating".
"As a result you have a propensity to rub up your colleague pilots while
on the flight deck the wrong way," he said.
Miss Sheffield denied the claims and said she did not know former
colleagues were working for Air Foyle until she called to ask why she had not been
offered an interview.
When a secretary mentioned a former colleague's name, she said: "Tell him
if he turns me down I will tie him upside down and whip him with a wet lettuce
leaf."
Miss Sheffield said a good working relationship between pilots was vital
to the safety of an aircraft but denied she was not "a team player".
Captain Malcolm Line, 61, general manager of Air Foyle until his
retirement last December, told the tribunal he had not interviewed Miss Sheffield
because he had already met her when she applied for a pilot's job with Berlin
European Airways several years before.
At the 1989 interview, he had rejected Miss Sheffield because of "a gut
instinct" based on her personality, he said.
"It was just a gut feeling that we would not get on. Somebody has to
carry the can for making these decisions."
Embarrassment can be "effective in reducing the teamwork" between crew
members, he added.
Even without the previous interview Miss Sheffield would not have been
employed because of the number of job changes that she had undergone raising
questions about her performance, Capt Line said.
"I entirely reject that she was rejected on the basis of her sex," he
said.
Last year Miss Sheffield, who has a daughter and worked as a mercenary in
the Rhodesian Air Force, launched a landmark European court action claiming the
British government was infringing her human rights by refusing to allow her
to change her birth certificate to indicate that she is now a woman.
Her claim received the backing of the European Commission on Human Rights
and is currently being considered by the European Court.
Although Miss Sheffield applied for a job with easyJet, her sex
discrimination claim has been lodged against Air Foyle because at the time it held the
budget airline's air operation certificate. Since then easyJet has gained its own
certificate.
Captain Michael Veal, a training and recruitment officer for Air Foyle, was
responsible for passing pilots' CVs to easyJet for consideration.
Capt Veal said that he had worked with Miss Sheffield for 12 months at
Airways International Cymru around 10 years ago and on the basis of his experiences
had decided to recommend that she be turned down.
He claimed she repeatedly "flaunted her femininity" in a way that
endangered
the safety of planes during her year with Cymru.
"She tended to be very forceful and, dominant is the wrong word, but over
positive in the things she did and also she flaunted her femininity which
made people feel uncomfortable.
"We had employed a number of other ladies in the airline and none of them
seemed to behave in this way," he said.
"She tried to make sure that no one was in any doubt that here was a lady
and she was very feminine. This got so bad that we had captains who would refuse
to fly with her because they felt so uncomfortable."
If the airline had not gone out of business Miss Sheffield would probably
have lost her job, Capt Veal said, adding that his last memory of her was at a
reunion party for Cymru staff.
"She was drawing a great deal of attention to herself telling everyone
she had been working as an escort since leaving the company," he said.
But although he had flown with Miss Sheffield twice during her time with
Cymru, Capt Veal said he could not remember warning her about her behaviour.
Summing up for the company, Mr Cheves said the captains did not have to
prove their view of Miss Sheffield was correct, but that her behaviour during the
tribunal had supported claims that she was difficult to get along with.
Speaking about the careers of airline pilots, he said: "They are going to
get known by their reputation, either good or bad. These reputations may or may
not be justified, but reputations will be made. No one said it was a fair
world."
He said Miss Sheffield's transsexuality would have had a bearing on their
opinions, but insisted this had not adversely affected their views of the
pilot.
Mr Cheves also pointed out that Captain Veal had done his best to help
Miss Sheffield when she had been asked to leave Britannia Airways after beginning
gender reassignment in 1986.
"Obviously it is impossible to divorce her character and personality from
the fact that she is a transsexual, but that is not the root cause of their
decisions, which were taken in respect of her and her applications in 1996,"
he said.
In reply, Miss Sheffield accused Air Foyle of character assassination and
said she was shocked by the claims which had surfaced during the hearing.
"I had no idea such things were being said of me, then or now, until I
saw the reports yesterday. I must admit I was extremely horrified to hear that
people could say these things about me. Everything possible has been done to
discredit me," she said.
Miss Sheffield challenged the statements provided by Air Foyle and
accused the
airline of "dubious methods" to avoid the embarrassment of being found
liable.
"This is just a ploy to try to assassinate my character by any means
necessary to escape their responsibility for having discriminated against me
because of my transsexuality," she said.
Reserving the tribunal's judgment, chairman George Plenderleath said it
would
be several weeks before the decision would be published.
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